Letter Carriers Protest Outsourcing at Postal HQ

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Your friendly letter carrier may soon be a thing of the past. The Postal Service’s push to privatize and outsource letter carriers was targeted by a rally of hundreds of carriers Monday afternoon at Postal Service headquarters at L’Enfant Plaza, organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC). The protest, despite a biting wind and intermittent rain, showed the agency  NALC will fight the Bush regime’s plans to gradually outsource their jobs, by replacing retiring Letter Carriers with lower-paid, low-benefit “casuals.” The agency’s effort to cut labor costs by inserting “casuals” is a major sticking point in bargaining with the NALC, which represents more than 200,000 letter carriers nationwide.   The protesters made their voices heard despite the wind, repeatedly chanting “No contracting out!”  One said “We’ll stay here till we’re blue” from the cold. But the unionists were concerned not just about their own jobs, but their communities, too--and they intend to rally constituents to their side nationwide. “This is just the beginning.  Eventually they want to replace all of us with ‘casuals,’” said Ed Smith of Local 1427 in Santa Clara, Calif.  “They want to use low-wage no-benefit workers.  Their goal is to have a Wal-Mart atmosphere,” he added, referring to the giant retailer--the nation’s largest private firm--known for its low pay, anti-union hatred and lack of health care benefits. “The Letter Carrier comes to your home every day.  Do you want a professional union Letter Carrier who cares about you, or not?  That’s the message we’ll take to communities,” he added. Replacement of the Letter Carriers with casuals is a particular sore point with Denise Null, President of Branch 555, in Cheyenne, Wyo.  Her state is so thinly populated that it has only 300 NALC members.  “We know our customers on a first-name basis.”  If casuals come in, “when its 20 below zero and the wind is blowing at 70 mph, the mail may not get delivered,” she added. Kenneth Lerch, President of Local 3825 in Rockville, Md., put the Postal Service’s push for “casuals” into a national context.  “This is nothing more than union-busting ordered from the highest levels of the Bush administration,” he said.  Lerch noted the agency’s board of governors is chaired by right wing former Reagan administration official Jim Miller. “I’d like to see informational picketing at every post office in the country” about the agency’s campaign to insert “casuals,” he added. “Do we really want low-bidder unscreened people coming to our doors every day?” NALC Branch 210 President Ken Lerch asked, pointing out that letter carriers – who are now trained, professional and unionized – know who’s home and who’s not in neighborhoods across the country. Contracted-out letter carriers would have no benefits, no leave, retirement or medical coverage under the Postal Services plan, according to the NALC, which will be working closely with community organizations to oppose the privatization plan. Photos by Chris Garlock
- reported by Press Associates, Inc.

 

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